Odano Naotake
Odano Naotake was a retainer to daimyô Satake Shozan of Akita han. Along with his lord, he was a major painter in the short-lived Akita ranga school.
Naotake was sent by Shozan to Edo to study with rangaku scholar Hiraga Gennai for five years; during that time, he interacted with a number of other prominent rangaku scholars, and in 1774 produced the illustrations for the Kaitai shinsho, one of the earliest and most significant early modern Japanese publications on Western (Dutch) medicine & anatomy. Upon his return to Akita, he and Shozan produced several treatises on Western painting techniques - among the first such essays to be written in Japan - as well as numerous paintings in the Western style.
Naotake later lost his official position in Edo, due to his associations with Gennai, following the latter's 1779 arrest and imprisonment. He died the following year.
References
- Takashina Shûji, "Eastern and Western Dynamics in the Development of Western-style Oil Painting during the Meiji Era," Paris in Japan: The Japanese Encounter with European Painting, Washington University (1987), 23.